The governor of Germany’s most populous state on Tuesday put two municipalities back into lockdown until June 30 after a regional outbreak had seen a large increase in Covid-19 cases.

German authorities on Tuesday ordered new lockdowns for two districts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the first since easing coronavirus restrictions and a major setback for hopes of a swift return to normality.

The move came after a coronavirus outbreak at a slaughterhouse that has infected more than 1,500 workers.

“For the first time in Germany, we will return an entire district to the measures that applied several weeks ago,” said Armin Laschet, state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia.

He said the lockdown would affect 360,000 people in the district of Gutersloh, and would stay in place until at least June 30.

A second neighbouring district was placed under lockdown just hours after restrictions were re-imposed for Gutersloh.

“In order to protect the population, we are now launching a further safety and security package to effectively combat the spread of the virus,” North Rhine-Westphalia health minister Karl-Josef Laumann said on Tuesday, ordering a lockdown for the district of Warendorf.

Biggest outbreak since early May

The new outbreak occurred at a slaughterhouse in the town of Rheda-Wiedenbrueck that employs nearly 7,000 people.

As of Sunday, 21 people were being treated in hospital, six of them in intensive care.

The outbreak in Germany’s most populous state is the biggest since the country began lifting the lockdown in early May.

Local authorities across Germany agreed then to pull an “emergency brake” and reimpose social curbs if the infection rate rises above 50 cases per 100,000 residents over a week in a particular district.

The rate in Gutersloh has soared well above that, sitting at 263 cases per 100,000 residents on Monday.

The new lockdown means a return to measures first introduced in March, with cinemas, museums, concert halls, bars, gyms, indoor swimming pools and saunas shut down, Laschet said.

Schools and kindergartens have also been closed ahead of school holidays which will start this weekend.

The move comes as Germany and the rest of the EU begin taking steps towards getting tourism up and running again, with many European borders reopening just last week.

Several planeloads of German tourists have flown to Spain’s Mallorca island to take part in a test of plans to reopen the popular destination as the country emerges from its coronavirus lockdown.

But the latest flareup in Gutersloh prompted authorities in the German island of Usedom to turn away a couple who had travelled from the affected district.

Under control     

Several COVID-19 outbreaks at slaughterhouses, not just in Germany but also in France, have put a spotlight on the working and housing conditions facing the workers — many of whom come from Romania or Bulgaria.

The German government has responded by banning the use of subcontractors in the meat industry in a bid to curb the controversial practice of companies using middlemen to supply workers from abroad who are more vulnerable to abuses.

But Germany has also seen new coronavirus clusters in residential buildings in Lower Saxony and in Berlin, where 370 families living in high-rise flats were placed under quarantine in one neighbourhood last week.

Despite the new outbreaks, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control centre remained optimistic on Tuesday that the virus remains under control in Germany.

“If we are able to keep the number of cases low the whole time, then we will be able to contain and end outbreaks locally, and that will remain the case,” RKI head Lothar Wieler said.

With new infection rates sharply down from highs in March and a death toll significantly lower than those of its neighbours, Germany became the first major EU country to begin easing virus restrictions about seven weeks ago.

The government has noted that rules to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 metres (five feet) as well as requirements to cover up noses and mouths in closed public spaces have helped in the fight against new transmissions.

It is now counting on contact tracing — both through human trackers as well as through a new app — to ensure that any new infections are isolated.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly warned against complacency before a viable vaccine is found.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Global coronavirus infections topped 9 million as the World Health Organization blamed a “lack of global solidarity and leadership” for allowing the pandemic to spread and Saudi Arabia announced it would scale back the Hajj Islamic pilgrimage next month.

Many parts of the world, including Latin America and South Asia, are only beginning to feel the full force of the pandemic, while other regions that appeared to have vanquished the virus are being hit with second waves.

Europe has steadily eased its travel lockdowns in recent weeks, and France took its biggest step back to normality on Monday by allowing millions of children to return to school.

“The pandemic is still accelerating,” the WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual health forum organised in the United Arab Emirates later that day.

Tedros said the greatest threat was not the virus itself, which has now killed over 470,000 people, but “the lack of global solidarity and global leadership.”

“We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world,” he said. “The politicisation of the pandemic has exacerbated it.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is one of the leaders to have repeatedly played down the threat, comparing the virus to a “little flu” and arguing the economic impact of shutdowns is worse than the virus itself.

More than 50,000 people have been confirmed to have died from the virus in Brazil, with the true number believed to be far higher.

Brazil’s official death toll is second only to the United States, which has recorded 120,000 fatalities, and President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis has been widely criticised as erratic and chaotic.

Trump on Monday said the American toll could surpass 150,000, as two more members of his team that helped organise a controversial weekend rally for him in Oklahoma tested positive.

Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina are also coping with crises — Mexico City being forced to delay plans for a broad reopening of the economy as the country’s death toll raced past 20,000.

With a vaccine still far away, the WHO has called for a rapid increase in production of the steroid dexamethasone, which has been shown to have life-saving potential.

‘Very limited’ Hajj                 

Saudi Arabia said it would allow a “very limited” number of pilgrims to its annual Hajj ritual, which last year drew 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world.

The Hajj, a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, represents a potentially major source of contagion.

Authorities said a hajj only involving pilgrims already in the kingdom would be permitted.

In Europe however, countries continued to ease their restrictions.

Thousands of French people danced and partied in the streets well into Monday for an annual music festival, in the first big blowout since the lockdown, leading to criticism of the authorities for being too lax.

“This is not what a gradual end to the lockdown looks like,” said Dr Gilbert Deray.

“I understand that the Festival of Music is something of a liberation, but did we really have to have it this year?”

In England authorities said cinemas, museums and galleries would reopen on July 4 in the next phase of easing lockdowns as infection rates there also slow.

But illustrating the persisting risks, Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa said restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people would be reimposed and cafes and shops ordered to close at 8pm in Lisbon.

Australians were warned to avoid travelling to Melbourne as the country’s second-biggest city tightened restrictions over fears of an upsurge in cases.

China, Germany, South Korea and Japan are also battling new outbreaks, with some reintroducing containment measures.

Meanwhile, the sports world has been slowly re-emerging from the virus darkness, although for every step forward it seems to take one back.

Three of the world’s top male tennis players tested positive after taking part in a tournament in the Balkans featuring world number one Novak Djokovic, raising questions over the sport’s planned return in August.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Cameroon police said on Monday they have seized a “huge quantity” of fake anti-malaria medication chloroquine and nivaquine in Douala, the commercial capital.

Police commissioner, Richard Djonwe told reporters the operation was successfully carried out thanks to a tip-off from locals.

He said, thousands of the fake tablets were smuggled into the city from neighbouring Nigeria. Those suspects caught with the drugs have been remanded in custody.

Officials said Cameroon has seen a rise in the production and proliferation of fake chloroquine, as people rush to obtain the anti-malaria drug in the unproven belief it can prevent the infection of COVID-19.

Last week, police seized 41 cartons of fake paracetamol in the city, according to the police.

In April, health authorities in the country shut down six pharmaceutical companies that were producing and selling counterfeit drugs.

Source: Xinhuanet

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after new data and studies showed no benefit.

WHO expert Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo said investigators leading the so-called Solidarity Trial testing the drug – which had been promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump – had reviewed recent evidence and decided to stop recruiting new patients.

“After deliberation, they have concluded that the hydroxychloroquine arm will be stopped from the Solidarity Trial,” Henao-Restrepo told a media briefing.

In a statement issued later on Wednesday, the WHO said the decision was based on evidence from the Solidarity Trial itself, as well as from a UK-led trial that had found the drug did not help COVID-19 patients, and from a review of other evidence on hydroxychloroquine.

Data from those studies “showed that hydroxychloroquine does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients,” the WHO statement said.

It said Solidarity Trial investigators would not add any more patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm.

But it added: “Patients who had already started hydroxychloroquine but who have not yet finished their course in the trial may complete their course or stop at the discretion of the supervising physician.”

Data from a UK-led clinical trial known as the Recovery trial found last week that the anti-malaria drug showed no benefit for patients with COVID-19.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday revoked its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, saying it was no longer reasonable to believe that hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine would be effective in treating the disease.

Source: REUTERS

The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cameroon has reached 10,140, according to Africa CDC’s real time statistics updated Tuesday morning, making it the sixth African nation that passed the 10,000 mark.

The death toll stands at 277, while number of recovered cases rose to 5,601, according to data from the Africa CDC.

Last week, the Cameroonian government said it will scale up testing capacity for COVID-19 to limit transmission. As of Monday, some 50,000 samples have been analyzed since the start of the pandemic in Cameroon in March, health minister Malachine Manaouda tweeted Monday evening.

“We will therefore strengthen our three-T (tracking-testing-treat) strategy and set a new testing target”, tweeted Manaouda.

Cameroon reported its first coronavirus infection on March 6, an imported case from Europe, and has closed national borders and applied social distancing since March 18.

Despite the increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, Cameroon eased some restrictions in May, and reopened schools for students in examination classes on June 1 to allow partial restoration of activities.

Source: Xinhuanet

Cameroon has recorded eleven deaths from coronavirus in twenty-four hours according to the Ministry of Public Health. One hundred thirty-six people have also died from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a news report by ‘cameroonmagazine.com’.

The daily press briefing by Dr. Fanne Mahamat on the situation of coronaviruses in Cameroon revealed that on Tuesday 12 May 2020, two thousand eight hundred people (2,800) had been diagnosed with the virus, of which one hundred and thirty-six died.

According to the director of health promotion at the Ministry of Public Health, confirmed cases increased on Tuesday as one hundred and eleven new people tested positive for COVID-19.

Prime Minister of Cameroon, Joseph Ngute on June 5 has appreciated the efforts of the public and said, “the figures to date are 6,789 positive cases, 4,565 cured and 203 deaths.”

Cameroon on March 5 became the first central African country to register a case of the virus. A 58-year-old French national who had arrived in the capital Yaounde in February.

Source: Devdiscourse

Cameroon’s government should immediately publish information on the revenues, disbursements, and management of its Health Solidarity Fund, Human Rights Watch said today.

Healthcare facilities have made mandatory contributions to this emergency fund for over 25 years. The government should also disburse funds to support healthcare facilities responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, if it has not already done so, and investigate any missing funds.

“Cameroon is the Central African country with the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, yet the government appears not to have disbursed funds from a reserve that healthcare facilities have been paying into exactly for emergencies like this one,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The health minister should immediately make the Health Solidarity Fund available to healthcare facilities in dire need of support, publish information about its transactions, and investigate any irregularities.”

Cameroonian law has required public primary care facilities to pay 10 percent of their monthly revenues to the Health Solidarity Fund since 1993. Hospitals are officially exempt, but medical staff told Human Rights Watch that they also pay into the fund. The fund should fall under the responsibility of the health ministry and was established to provide surge support during health emergencies. However, to the best of Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, after unsuccessfully seeking such information from the government, no information about the rules governing the fund or its activity has been published, making it vulnerable to corruption and misuse.

Human Rights Watch interviewed eight medical staff, including six doctors and two nurses, three lawyers, and several representatives from local nongovernmental organisations across Cameroon between April 6 and May 24, 2020. They all said they have no information regarding disbursements from the Health Solidarity Fund. Medical staff said that they believe that the government has never disbursed any money from it, including in response to Covid-19, and yet healthcare facilities continue to contribute 10 percent of their revenues. Human Rights Watch also wrote on May 11 to the health minister, inquiring about the rules governing the fund and its activities, but has received no response.

Cameroon had 8,681 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 208 deaths as of June 9, the majority in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala. The actual number of cases is most likely higher because testing is limited. In late March, the government asked citizens to contribute to the Special Fund of National Solidarity, which it established to provide additional support to efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 and treat the sick. It also received US$226 million in emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Healthcare facilities lack adequate resources to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. Healthcare workers interviewed reported shortages in basic hospital goods, including thermometers, disinfectants, and medicines, as well as ventilators and oxygen, and protective gear for doctors and nurses, such as masks, gloves, and glasses. Despite these shortages, the government has not provided any information about the revenues, balance, or disbursements of the Health Solidarity Fund, nor has it clarified any rules governing its use. The apparent lack of disbursement to support the health and economic crisis raises serious concerns that the money has been misused or lost to corruption.

As the World Health Organization has declared Covid-19 a pandemic, the health and economic crisis it has caused is sufficiently serious to trigger disbursements from the Health Solidarity Fund. A 2018 World Bank report sounded an alarm regarding the lack of rules or information on the fund, noting “it is not clear what the Solidarity Fund is used for” and “there is still no legislation about its use.” The report also raised concerns that transfers to the fund “are a key source of revenue-side inefficiency,” especially since primary care facilities are allotted a disproportionately small share of the health budget.

Healthcare workers echoed these concerns. A doctor based in the capital, Yaoundé, said:

There has always been lack of information about this fund. What is certain is that health facilities keep paying and if they don’t, they are sent reminder letters from the Ministry of Health. The use of the fund is not transparent. How much money is in there? Has it ever been used? There are all the ingredients for a slush fund. 

The lack of transparency is especially problematic because the fund’s revenues largely come from patient fees that drive up the cost of health care. As of 2018, 70 percent of the total health expenditure for the country was borne by households. Cameroonian households’ contributions to healthcare costs are the third highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average is 34 percent.

Studies have shown that about 64 percent of households in Cameroon do not seek health care because they perceive the cost to be high. This poses unique dangers in the context of the ongoing pandemic because while the government has made testing free, people still need to pay for everything associated with treatment, which can be expensive. These costs could act as a disincentive to seeking care and lead to further poverty and an inability to access health services. While there are some insurance providers in the country, many are bankrupt and cannot pay the health facilities for the services offered to their members.

The government has retaliated against political opposition efforts to address shortcomings in official responses to Covid-19. On May 11, police arrested six volunteers from the Survival Initiative, a fundraising initiative by the opposition leader Maurice Kamto to respond to the health emergency, while they were handing out protective masks and sanitizing gel in Yaoundé. They were charged with rebellion, then released on May 15. But on May 23, security forces arrested three other volunteers from the group in Sangmelina, a city in the South Province. They were released on May 29.

Through the minister of territorial administration, the government has blocked fundraising initiatives sponsored by the opposition, as well as donations of protective masks and Covid-19 tests. The government refused to accept donated equipment from Survival Initiative, sparking criticism, particularly from health professionals, who complained about the lack of material to protect themselves and treat affected patients.

Corruption is prohibited under section 134 of the Cameroonian Penal Code, yet the country has a long, well-documented, and consistent problem with corruption. In recent years, the government has established ad hoc institutions to fight corruption, including the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the office of Supreme State Audit, and a Special Criminal Court. However, analysts, critics, and nongovernmental organizations have questioned whether these bodies have been effective and raised concerns that the government may be using anti-corruption bodies to crack down on political dissent.

“The government of Cameroon should urgently clarify whether money from the fund has been lost to corruption or misuse and establish clear rules and transparency requirements to prevent it from happening in the future” Mudge said. “For nearly 30 years Cameroonians paid dearly for the fund, and they should be able to rely on it to help them through this global pandemic.”

Culled from Human Rights Watch